Swarms of cliches assault us from all sides. Defend the revolution! Brand South Africa! These two slogans, not exactly compatible, are urged straight-faced every day. The fact that exhortations to revolution and branding can appear to coexist peacefully, as if they could possibly share any kind of symbiotic relationship, tells us that not only has a great deal of our language been tortured out of any sense, but that there are also plenty of people who listen to this hocus-pocus as if it means something. So here, dear reader, is a short dictionary that defines some of our most overused and abused words. It encompasses, from A to Z, politics, business, culture, sport and history.